The present invention is directed to a system for ensuring that users of an apparatus comply with predetermined operating parameters.
Field of the Invention
In many industries, particularly those relating to the processing and preparation of food, contamination of the product by workers is a major public health threat. Government health inspectors and industry management have therefore sought to require workers to wash their hands before handling the product and after their hands may have come into contact with any substance that could contaminate the product.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Food Code provides guidelines for preparing food and preventing food-borne illness. Retail outlets such as restaurants and grocery stores and other institutions such as nursing homes are subject to the Food Code. The Food Code specifies that certain employees must periodically (e.g., every thirty minutes) follow a defined cleaning procedure (e.g., clean hands and exposed portions of arms for at least twenty seconds) (Food Code, .sctn. 2-301.12). The Food Code also specifies that employees must follow a more rigorous cleaning procedure after using the bathroom (Food Code, .sctn. 2-301.13).
In addition to requiring employees to wash their hands, the Food Code requires their employer to monitor the employees' hand washing. For example, the Food Code requires implementation of a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point Plan (HACCP Plan), which is to be monitored by a "person in charge." An HACCP Plan must include a method for monitoring and a frequency for monitoring and controlling each critical point, a method and a frequency to routinely verify that employees are following standard operating procedures and monitoring critical control points, and a system for maintaining records to demonstrate that the HACCP Plan is properly operated and managed (Food Code, .sctn. 8-201.14).
Local, state, and federal regulators use the Food Code as a model to help develop or update their own food safety rules and to be consistent with national food regulatory policy. Also, many of the over one million retail food establishments attempt to apply Food Code provisions to their own operations, although the Food Code is neither federal law nor federal regulation and does not preempt state or local laws.
Despite such extensive efforts to ensure that proper hand washing is performed, more than a quarter of all food-borne illnesses (6,000,000 reported cases, an estimated 81,000,000 unreported cases, and 9,000 deaths in 1992) are thought to be due to improper hand washing. Similar concerns exist in the health care industry, where improper hand washing is believed to cause over 500,000 hospital-related (nosocomial) infections each year.
Monitoring the equipment used in the preparation and service of food, which affects the quality and quantity of the food prepared, is another aspect of the industry that needs to be monitored for safety and efficiency.
Other aspects of industries outside of those relating to the processing and preparation of food, such as employee monitoring systems, chemical monitoring and testing equipment, utilities metering devices, smoke detection systems, and laundry/drying systems, require an apparatus for increasing efficiency and for monitoring user compliance with predetermined operating parameters.